


Bangkok Blokes

by goodcasting



Series: Bangkok Blokes [1]
Category: Johnny's Entertainment, Jpop, SixTONES (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Dream Sex, Exes, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Male Friendship, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Taiga POV, Travel, a bit of Kouchesse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:22:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25910530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodcasting/pseuds/goodcasting
Summary: Sex-and-the-City meets FRIENDS, sexy but still wholesome, but instead of New York, it's set in Bangkok and Phuket where the six former co-stars meet again to attend a wedding and among them are the secret exes, Taiga and Hokuto.
Relationships: Kyomoto Taiga/Matsumura Hokuto
Series: Bangkok Blokes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1893022
Comments: 10
Kudos: 21





	Bangkok Blokes

**Author's Note:**

> Compared to the first one that I wrote, Minx, this is pretty wholesome in comparison, less sex, more talks, and adult humor. I also decided that instead of using original characters, it's better to have the entire SixTONES here since that'll be more fun. Also, I challenged myself and write in the present tense since I always write using past tense and everything will be in Taiga's POV.  
> Lastly, I enjoyed including my travels in my writing so after Hawaii, now in Bangkok. Enjoy!~

_The odds of bumping into the one who broke your heart are incredibly high. The odds of bumping into him when you look like shit are even higher…_

“Blasted, Shintaro!” Taiga curses as he struggles with the explosion coming out of his behind. If there’s one thing he hates, it’s having this kind of emergency in public toilets when he didn’t know if there’s tissue, bidet, or something. He quickly looks at the tissue holder, lifted the lid, and thanked the heavens to see an ample roll available for him. A mixture of nuts and chili flakes is never a good combination; it was a bad idea to let Shintaro dump those condiments on his Pad Thai. He pinches his nose while he let his intestinal muscles push everything that needs to be let out. When he felt like nothing will come out again, he cleans himself, puts his foot on the flush, and pushes it down. However, the toilet flush in Bangkok must be different, because instead of pushing his fecal matter down, the pressure seems to be in reverse that Taiga’s eyes widen in panic as the toilet almost overflow with feces that are not even his. He immediately whips out his phone for a SOS call to Shintaro, but not a single bar for signal. He looks at the horrifying and nauseating picture in front of him, and maybe, just maybe, he could just run away and pretend that nothing happened. But the Japanese in him can’t bear to do that, his fellow-men picked-up their trash when they went to see a match during the Brazil Olympics, surely, he, Kyomoto Taiga, should follow their example and clean after his own poo. Well, in Taiga’s defense, the content of that dark matter is no longer just his own, so he decided to just call staff for help, this will be written as one of his most embarrassing moment, but it’s not like he is known in Bangkok. He opens the door, takes a peek outside, and of all people on earth, it has to be Hokuto on the other side of the door.

“H-Hokuto?” Taiga says as if there’s an acrid taste in his mouth, “why are you here?”

“Are you done?” He ignores his question and tries to open the door, but Taiga holds it tightly as his life depended on it, “not yet, will you call Shintaro outside? I-I need help.”

“I’m here, what do you want?”

Taiga pursed his lips, how can he tell Hokuto that it’s not that he doesn’t _need_ his help, but he doesn’t _want_ his to help? The scene behind him is his dark secret, something that he will only share to his closest friend, and that’s not Hokuto, heck, they’re not even friends!

“Can you just get Shintaro?” Taiga tries but Hokuto’s biceps isn’t just a display, he pries the door open and he goes inside before Taiga can stop him. He stops at the nauseating picture in front of him.

“I-it’s clogged, I think, and I swear that half of those are not even mine.”

Hokuto pinches his perfect celestial nose, put his foot on the flush, push it down, and for some miracle, it worked just how it’s supposed to be.

“He’s probably thinking that I’m some lunatic who can’t even flush the toilet.”

“What are you talking about?” Shintaro asks, his mouth hasn’t stopped moving since they left Thipsamai, and now he’s eating some glutinous rice desert while they walk.

“This is your entire fault, you glutton,” Taiga says.

“Huh?”

“Why did Hokuto follow us anyway? I thought he was tired,” Taiga quickly glances back, Hokuto is walking together with Jesse and Kouchi, Hokuto looks divine in his white sleeveless shirt tucked into fisherman pants, which is like something every white tourist would wear when they visit the Grand Palace.

Shintaro shrugs, “who knows? He just showed up, maybe he got hungry, maybe he got bored, are you bothered by his presence?” He teases.

“I’m not,” Taiga quickly denies, “I’m just surprised that he would hang-out with us.” He, Shintaro, Jesse, Kouchi, and Hokuto are currently in Thailand to attend Juri’s big brother’s wedding in Phuket. The five of them decided to arrive earlier to explore Bangkok, Taiga should have said no, but when faced with a scandal in Tokyo, he chose to hop the first flight to Bangkok.

Taiga is a star on his own, but he never thought that he will be called Japan’s answer to Jennifer Aniston. It’s not because they have the same straight blond locks, nor is it because they are both “sweethearts” in their own rights, nor is it because they both catapulted to fame because of a TV show, but it’s because of their own tragic love story. Just like Jen, Taiga had an equally famous movie star girlfriend, who cheated on him with an equally famous pop star, and they went on to become philanthropist, parents to lovely twins, and now everyone are raving how perfect they are for each other. Taiga wants to laugh at how those tabloids are now singing a different tune. Those who labeled his ex-girlfriend as a tramp is now on her side as she returns to Japan with her pop star husband, while Taiga found himself at the other end of the pity party with headlines labeling him as “Poor Taiga”.

“We’re here!” Shintaro announces as a man-made mountain looms in front of them, Wat Saket, or the temple of Golden Mount is their next destination after having Thipsamai’s famous Pad Thai, Jesse suggested they walk here to bring down their heavy meal, although Taiga isn’t too keen for any physical activity since he has gotten out everything.

“300 steps, the last one to reach the top will pay for the Thai massage tomorrow!” Jesse announces and rushes ahead of them, Kouchi quickly follows to pacify Jesse since they are in a temple, Shintaro starts hopping while he climbs the stairs with snacks on his hand, Taiga slowly follows Shintaro since he knows he doesn’t have that much energy and Hokuto tails behind him. Taiga doesn’t know how far he has climbed, he can no longer see Shintaro after a curve, he can feel his breathing getting heavy, his heart pounding harder that he has to stop and pretends to admire the panorama of Bangkok old town.

“Are you okay?” Hokuto asks.

“I’m fine, you can go ahead,” Taiga answers without looking.

“I’m not really referring to your stamina; you know what I’m talking about.”

Of course, Taiga knows what Hokuto is talking about and he hates it, hates that it’s Hokuto who’s asking that question. No one among Shintaro, Jesse, and Kouchi asks him about that part he was running away from Japan, and he was thankful for their silence because he doesn’t really want to talk about it, he wants it buried, forgotten, treated like it never happened like that awful DIY haircut he did during his teens, and here comes Hokuto, casually asking a question that he’s running away from.

“Like I said earlier, I’m fine, you can go ahead.”

Hokuto didn’t speak for a while, “okay, may I ask another question, Taiga?”

Taiga’s head quickly turns to Hokuto; it’s so rare for Hokuto to call him using his first name so Taiga always has to look to make sure it wasn’t a mistake.

“What is it?”

“Is it worth it? Leaving me for her?”

Late summer breeze blows in, a gong nearby makes an echo, and Taiga suddenly feels like he has the strength the climb the rest of the 300 steps if it means he can run away from this very awkward question.

“I don’t regret anything I’ve done in the past,” Taiga says.

“Ah, that’s good then,” Hokuto replies, and saunters pass by him.

Taiga finds himself holding his breath, his fist clenched as he watches Hokuto moving farther away from him, Taiga only has two loves in his life so far, there’s his cheating ex-girlfriend and there’s Hokuto.

_They say that nothing lasts forever but friendships never go out of style…_

After spending more than an hour on top of Wat Saket, taking multiple shots in front of the golden _Chedi_ , savoring the night sights of Bangkok old town where nearby temples glisten beside the glow of incandescent lamps, and Jesse ringing every gong they passed by, the guys excitedly hops in the classic Bangkok ride, _tuktuk._ Although they are not sure if 1000 Baht is a reasonable price for a trip from Wat Saket to their hotel near Chit Lom BTS, they decided to charge it to experience. Hokuto hops in first and seats on the tiny space on far-right, Shintaro and Jesse occupy the middle, and Kouchi and Taiga are the last to squeeze themselves in. The space is cramped because Jesse’s legs are 50% of the space, Taiga’s skin burns when Hokuto’s limbs touch his own, and the five of them are like playing a twister board game inside the tuktuk with their limbs tangled and their arms outstretched to where they can manage to hold as the tuktuk speeds off. Shintaro starts saying something that they should probably check-out the nightlife in Patpong, however, the gleam in his eye suggests a nightlife that Taiga wants no part of.

“Where are you guys from?” the tuktuk driver asks in English. 

Jesse immediately answers, “Japan.”

“Asks him to recommend places to go here in Bangkok,” Shintaro tells Jesse.

“Uhm, is there a place here in Bangkok that you can recommend?”

“Yes, BNK48 campus! Do you want to go there now?”

They all look at each other and they immediately knew that they were thinking the same thing, this BNK48 must be a sister group of AKB48, and they knew they were correct when the driver turns on his Bluetooth speaker and AKB48’s “Koisuru Fortune Cookie” booms in, only the entire lyrics are in Thai.

“You know them?” The driver asks with glee, “I bought their cd, first time I bought not pirated cd so I can get a handshake ticket to Cherprang.”

“Oh,” they say in unison, pretending to be impressed.

“I know, mind-blowing, eh?”

Jesse, being Jesse, starts singing Koisuru Fortune Cookie in gibberish Thai along with its equally famous dance step, not to be left-out, Shintaro chimes along, who surprisingly knows the actual lyrics, Kouchi and Taiga join in as they half-laugh and half-dance, while Hokuto was just smiling at the foolishness. The driver increases the volume and sings along, and in the middle of a traffic jam, the sight of 5 guys inside a tuktuk singing and dancing to Koisuru Fortune Cookie is a sight to see. 

_Love Fortune Cookie_ _  
The future ain't that bad  
Hey! Hey! Hey!  
You gotta show your smile to get some of that luck  
Heart-shaped Fortune Cookie  
let's start making our luck better  
Hey! Hey! Hey!_ _  
Hey! Hey! Hey!  
Life ain't all that bad  
A surprising miracle will come in a surprising way  
I feel like we'll be able to love each other somewhere, somehow…_

Taiga laughs on, except for Shintaro, he regrets that he didn’t keep in touch with the rest, he treated them like an ex-boyfriend that you have to forget, and now he feels like he missed -out an important part of his life. After all, the best part of his teenage years was spent with these guys before adulthood creeps in, giving them fears and anxieties that they have to face. Soon, Taiga finds himself laughing and crying, they all stop with worry on their faces, Kouchi gives him a pat on his back, and the _tuktuk_ driver looks at him from the rear-view mirror with sympathy on his eyes, “I feel you man, first time I heard this I also cried, you know, life is like a jar of fortune-cookies, you never know what you’re gonna get.”

_Ugly sex is hot. Some of the best sex I’ve had is with people I can’t stand…_

Taiga wakes-up and his first thought are that it’s better to wake up on the wrong side of the bed than waking-up, not on your bed. As far his memory is correct, his room has two double beds, but this room only has one queen-sized bed, and worst, he has nothing on but his boxers. He can hear that someone is showering in the bathroom and he could only pray that he is in Shintaro’s room. He racks his alcohol-muddled brain, their supposed trip to BNK48 campus last night was re-routed to a different kind of campus, the walls filled with different bottles of beer from top to bottom, they drank and Taiga poured his hearts out, he apologized for not keeping in touch, for not greeting them on their birthdays, for pretending to be busy when called for a get-together, and simply for being a selfish idiot. Taiga said all these, totally unfazed that Hokuto is with them.

“Good morning,”

Taiga manages to insert one leg in his pants before he fell because Hokuto has to come out from the shower with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist, the bony body that Taiga remembered from their early 20s had grown tough, transforming to hard muscles and long sinew.

I’m so fucked up. “Good morning,” Taiga tries to sound casual because, really, he might scream. He quickly dresses up, pulls his pants up and wears his t-shirt, the seams are outside but he doesn’t care because he wants to run away as quickly as possible.

“I remove your clothes last night because you smell of smoke and booze, I don’t want that on my bed,” Hokuto says and starts putting on a milk lotion on his face.

“Ah, thanks, w-why am I in your room?” Taiga asks, he really doesn’t want to ask it, but he’s dying of the reason why.

Hokuto faces him from the mirror where he can see his gorgeousness while Taiga looks like he went for a chemical peeling session, his face is so red, and he doesn’t know if it’s still the after-effects of alcohol or from embarrassment.

“You can’t remember?” Hokuto asks with one eyebrow raised, taunting him.

“I-I was too drunk,” Taiga reasons-out.

“Don’t worry about it, Kyomoto, I’m pretty sure that you’ll remember it, eventually,” Hokuto resumes to putting on a different cream on his face.

Taiga swallows a lump in his throat, no; he doesn’t want to ask this question, it’ll be too embarrassing, but, “Nothing happened, right?”

“I don’t take advantage of drunken men; in fact, I was the one who was taken advantage of last night.”

“Whatever do you mean?”

Before Hokuto can answer, his doorbell rings, he walks over to open it, and Shintaro’s loud voice came in, “Is Kyomo here?”

“I’m here,” Traitor.

“Oh, Kyomo, you better get ready, our flight to Phuket is at 12 noon,”

Taiga instantly panics; he completely forgot that they’ll be flying to Phuket today.

“See you later,” he tells both of them and quickly leaves Hokuto’s room, he goes straight to shower upon entering his room, thinking that he shouldn’t have bothered getting dress, he lets the water runs from his head down to his body, he opens the shampoo bottle, pours the thick white fluid on his palm and his eyes widen as he screams. He leans on the tiled wall for support, he remembers something he hoped he never remembered, Shintaro helped him last night to his room, but after a while, he stood up and went knocking at Hokuto’s room. Hokuto opened the door, his eyes in a daze, asking him why he wasn’t sleeping, and Taiga, in his drunken state, begged Hokuto to fuck him. Taiga let out another scream at the present as he recalled every word he said, “I really just want to be pounded hard, I want to feel someone’s weight on me, my head knocking up against the headboard, I just really want to be fucked, just really fucked.”

“I’m so fucking fucked,” he murmurs and increases the shower volume, letting the shampoo to be washed away.

He recalled going down on Hokuto, tried to push his pajamas down, but Hokuto resisted and told him to stop, he’s drunk, but did he listen? No, he didn’t fucking listen, he didn’t know where in the world he got the strength, but he was able to push Hokuto down, and immediately Taiga kissed him with fervor, Hokuto tried to resist at first, but soon, he was kissing Taiga back, their tongues mating, while Taiga’s hand travel down and started palming him.

Hokuto broke the kiss, told him that they should stop; they might both regret this in the morning, but did Taiga listen? No, he didn’t listen, Hokuto’s resistance challenged him that like a cannibal, he hungrily pulled Hokuto’s pants down; he even got angry when he saw that he was wearing a brief, he removed that too, and Hokuto’s semi-hard cock greeted him. Taiga gave it a kiss, started moving his hand up and down its length, while his tongue encircled its tip. Taiga got excited as he felt Hokuto’s penis growing harder on his palm, his hand moved faster, encouraging him to cum on his hands, and when Hokuto did, the most inconceivable thing happened, Taiga fell fast asleep, Hokuto’s cock on his face, his seeds on his hand.

_Oh please, there’s always a competition with an ex, it’s called ‘who’ll die miserable?’_

Taiga pretends to be asleep the entire journey to Phuket, who cares if the trip is only an hour and a half, he will sleep, or at least, pretend. The ground crew staff must have something against him; Taiga knows he’s not that good in English, but how complicated it is to make the ground crew understand that he doesn’t want to be seated beside Matsumura Hokuto? The staff not only sat him beside Hokuto, she also sat them in the only two seats in the last row before the middle door exit. Pretending to sleep has been also hard for Taiga because the guy in front of him is not only a rude seat-recliner but he’s also a snorer, never in Taiga’s life did he wish he is seated beside a crying baby than Shintaro in front of him, not only that, Jesse decided to practice his English-speaking skills and got really chatty to some American guys opposite of their row, but the most trying part for Taiga is when Hokuto fell asleep and his head leaned on his shoulder. Taiga tries to be subtle and pushes him off the first time, but Hokuto’s head keeps coming back on his shoulder until Taiga gives in, he just let it go, and tortures himself with the citrus smell of Hokuto’s hair, how can he smell so good in anything? When they landed in Phuket, Taiga is too tired to appreciate the white sand and crystal jade waters that he falls asleep the moment his back touches the chaise lounge in the resort villa that they rented.

Taiga didn’t know how long he slept, but the sun have set when he opened his eyes, the living room is dark except for the glow of the TV, and from their silhouette, he could make out three guys huddled together while watching two men flirting on TV. Sensing he’s awake, Kouchi glances back and asks him to join them, he makes a space between Jesse and him, Taiga seats down, he has no idea what they were watching, but he would love to snuggle under a wooly blanket and eat some popcorn.

“What are you watching?”

“Shhh…” Jesses chide him as one of the guys on TV bend down for a kiss.

“Woooh!” the three of them exclaimed. Taiga can’t help to scoff, it’s just a peck on the lips, and then he recalls that was how he and Hokuto started, a single kiss on the lips.

“Dinners here!” the lights went on and Hokuto and Juri enter the villa with plates of squid, shrimp, oyster, and clams; the smell of sea and smoke wafted in the air, signaling their stomachs to grumble with anticipation.

“Yay!” Shintaro and Jesse jump out from the couch like kids, Kouchi fixes the blanket, while Taiga follows the youngest two to the dining area while holding a bowl of popcorn, Hokuto comes closer to him to get some popcorn, he smells of charcoal and sea salt with his skin glowing from the sweat. Their eyes met and Taiga immediately hands him the popcorn and takes a seat beside Shintaro.

“This is quite a feast, I don’t want to look fat tomorrow,” Shintaro says after slurping one oyster, “oh, this is so good!”

“It’s called oyster butter _yaki_ , cooked in butter with a squeeze of lemon,” Juri says and hands Jesse the clams covered in roasted cheese, “cheese for Jesse.”

“Looked at that oozing cheese!” Jesse exclaims and puckers his lips.

“Tomato kebab for Kyomo,” Juri hands him the roasted tomatoes which Taiga immediately devours from the stick, “So juicy and sweet.”

Kouchi chuckles, “maybe it’s because I’ve just watched a BL, or maybe because some of these foods are aphrodisiac, but all of your food commentaries sound so sexual to me.”

They all look at Kouchi with disgust, “what’s with this atmosphere?”

“Forgive him, he hasn’t gotten laid since he did that distasteful Dan Mitsu gag on his radio show,” Jesse says.

“When I heard that, I wanted to text Kouchi to say that he’s so fucked up,” Shintaro adds.

“I was working during Kouchi’s radio show and one of my co-stars was like, ‘isn’t he your friend from that TV show?’ and I said no, we’re not friends,” Juri added.

“I immediately blocked him in LINE,” says Hokuto.

“Oi, aren’t you guys being too mean to me?” Kouchi asks, “Taiga saved me that time though.”

“How did I save you?” Taiga really has no idea as he slices the grilled squid stuffed with tomatoes and onions.

“Your break-up was all over the papers the week after, no one cared about my joke,”

Everyone looks at Kouchi with a mixture of disgust, shock, and worry about his safety. Shintaro starts mouthing, “you’re dead” to Kouchi while gesturing how his head will be cut off. Taiga starts sharpening the knife with the fork and Kouchi can only try to make himself small and hides behind Jesse.

“Uhm, Kyomo,” Juri starts saying.

Taiga stops what he’s doing, “sorry, I don’t want to turn your _oniichan’s_ wedding to a murder scene so I’ll hold off murdering Kouchi for now.”

Everyone lets out a sigh of relief.

“Of course I’m just kidding, it’s been more than a year since it happened, and I’m really fine. It’s the tabloids who haven’t moved on; they wanted to heighten the drama by including me in news about her.”

The five of them nodded and Taiga knew that no one believed him.

“So, Hokuto, I heard you’re dating the second female lead in your drama?” Juri asks, Taiga knows that Juri just wants to make the conversation less awkward for him, but to turn it to Hokuto and who’s he presently dating made it more awkward.

“That’s just a rumor,” Hokuto answers while Taiga busies himself with peeling and deveining every shrimp on the plate.

“Eh, really? As in you don’t like her or something?”

“Well, I like her, but just as an actress or a co-star,”

“Hokuto, it’s just us here, you don’t need to deny it,” Juri teases more and Taiga just finds himself getting better and faster in peeling the shrimps. Taiga knows it’s none of his business, but he guess, it’s better if he knows if Hokuto is dating someone or not before he drunkenly eats his cock again. Not that he wants to do it again, but he just wants to make sure.

“Wait a minute, Kyomo, why are you peeling all those shrimps? Are you going to eat all of them?”

Taiga’s fingers stop in mid-air, he almost finished the entire plate of shrimp, “no, Kouchi will eat everything.”

“Eh?! I can’t eat that much, I might not fit my clothes for tomorrow,” Kouchi protests until he sees the steely glint in Taiga’s eyes, “but who cares? I have a fast metabolism.”

“You’re going to poop everything anyway,” Jesse adds and sweetly helps Kouchi in eating the shrimps.

“Anyway, after this dinner, we’re going to watch a show,” Juri announces, a teasing smile in his lips, “Simon Cabaret.”

Upon hearing the word “Cabaret”, they quickly finished their meal.

_Sometimes the wrong choices, lead us to the right places…_

Simon Cabaret Show is a show like no other, its full of glitz and glamour, it’s the Moulin Rouge of Phuket, ladyboys in skimpy and sparkly outfits, headdresses that could rival those from Mardi Gras, dances from all over the world, and more in just one show. Taiga loves it, though the rest were a bit disappointed, saying that the cabaret show was a bit tame than what they have expected.

Taiga finds himself unable to sleep even though he can feel his eyes getting heavier, so he goes down to get a drink. He didn’t bother turning on the lights, all the blinds were up, and the moonlight gives an ample glow so he can see where he’s going. He opens the fridge and luckily, there’s a half-full bottle of milk. He empties the bottle, and when he closes the fridge, he gets startled by Hokuto who is casually standing behind by the fridge.

“How long have you’ve been there?” Taiga asks.

“Long enough to know that you drank my milk,” Hokuto answers, his eyes on the empty bottle on Taiga’s hand.

“T-this is yours?”

“Just kidding, it’s Juri’s and knowing him, as long as it’s you, it doesn’t matter,” Hokuto says and that’s when Taiga notices that Hokuto is wearing nothing but surfer shorts and a towel over his shoulder. He walks to the glass doors leading to the villa’s infinity pool and looks back at Taiga, “you can join me if you want.”

“I can’t swim,” Taiga says but Hokuto is already outside, he puts the towel on one of the rattan chaise lounges and dives into the pool. Like those fishermen being tempted by a nymph, Taiga follows Hokuto outside and seats on one of the chairs. He watches as Hokuto swims lap after lap after lap, it’s probably where he got those well-defined broad shoulders and triceps, Taiga must be staring too hard at Hokuto that he didn’t realize he was now standing beside him panting while he dries himself.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

They say, people tend to confess easily when they are tired or sleepy, and Taiga did just that, “I’m sorry for what I did last night.”

Hokuto stops drying his hair and wraps the towel around his shoulders, “so you remember how you’ve taken advantage of me?”

“I have no excuse and I’m really sorry,”

Hokuto sits on the other chair, “why are you sorry that? For all you know, I might have liked what happened,”

Taiga shakes his head, “I felt bad, cruel even, I broke your heart before, and then I have the nerve to come knocking at your door begging for a fuck. You should have shut the door right to my face; it’s what I deserve and more,”

“Knowing you, you’ll keep on knocking even if I shut the door to your face, you’ve been too spoiled to take no for an answer,”

Taiga shrugs, Hokuto has a point.

“Does she spoil you?” Hokuto asks after a while.

Taiga thinks hard before answering, he never really talks about _her_ , “she does, that’s why maybe I never realized she was cheating on me, or maybe I’m just really obtuse, or maybe I just too self-centered to even think that she would cheat on me,”

“Ah,” was Hokuto’s only reply.

“How about you? H-have you been with someone since-since then?”

“I’ve dated quite a few until I realized that I should focus on myself first instead of jumping from one relationship to another,”

“Ah,” was Taiga’s only reply.

They both look at the dark horizon ahead, the full moon casts serenity to the darkness, giving it a sense of romance than foreboding, they listen to the sound of distant waves that seem to have been amplified as it crashes to the shore, and Taiga and Hokuto just listen to it for a long time.

“Woah, Juri, did you cry?” Taiga asks when Juri greets them in the morning with swollen eyes.

“I’m fine,” Juri says and takes the toasted bread with strawberry jam from Taiga, “I’ll see you guys later, I was told that there’ll be lots of photoshoots before the wedding so I have to get ready, 3pm later, don’t be late!’

They waved Juri goodbye as he leaves for his family’s villa, which is a couple of blocks from them.

“Okay, what happened to Juri?” Taiga asks Kouchi, aka, the most likely to spill the beans.

“He cried because-”

“Because?” Taiga and Hokuto ask, both of them full of concern for Juri, while unknown to them, Jesse and Shintaro were shooting daggers at Kouchi’s direction.

“-because, remember the BL that we watched before dinner? The one we didn’t finish?”

Taiga nods while Hokuto shakes his head.

“Well, Juri watched it last night and he cried because he got frustrated with the OTP because they can’t be honest with their own feelings because he wanted to lock them in some room and let them get over with it because he felt like they are missing a lot by being that stupid-”

“Wait a minute,” Taiga interrupts, he places his knuckles under his chin, like a detective in deep thought, “why does it sound like you’re frustrated as well? It’s also like you’re referring to someone you know and not just the leads of that drama,”

“That’s because Juri and I were just so, so emotionally invested to it,” Kouchi reasons, he drinks his coffee, and spits it, “who puts salt in my coffee?” He directed that question to the most likely suspect, Jesse.

“Eh? Was that salt? Sorry, I can’t read Thai, you know?” Jesse says although his face reads that he’s really not sorry.

Kouchi picks up the container, “it’s in English!”

Jesse simply rolls his eyes, but Taiga isn’t finished yet, “why does it feel like you guys are hiding something from me? Shintaro, do you know anything about this?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m going swimming,” Shintaro says and quickly gets up to leave.

“I’m going swimming too,” Jesse adds and grabs Kouchi by his t-shirt, “our _onsen_ sommelier will be going swimming as well,”

Taiga’s eyes follow them out and saw how Jesse throws Kouchi to the pool- with the toast in between his lips.

“Hokuto, do you think they are hiding something from us?”

Hokuto shrugs, “knowing them, if they don’t want to talk about it, no one can force them, but once they want to talk about it, no one can stop them. Do you want a coffee refill?”

Taiga gives his cup to Hokuto who refills his half-full mug, he adds one sugar cube and splash of milk, while Taiga grabs one toast and spread cream cheese on it. Hokuto gives Taiga his coffee while Taiga gives Hokuto his toast and they ate breakfast like that while watching Kouchi suffer in the hands of Jesse.

_Don’t let him kiss you. That seems to be where you get in trouble…_

Taiga removes his white bowtie in his last-ditch attempt to make his white Christian Dior tuxedo look less formal, but it’s definitely not working. One might think that he’s the groom, or that he’s trying to upstage the groom, or that he’s the bride’s ex-boyfriend and wanted to show what she’ll be missing. He was too busy running away in Japan that he didn’t read the invitation’s fine print, “please come in your best white outfit, it’ll be a bohemian theme wedding”, and now he’s dressed like he’ll be attending the Oscars while everyone is on their way to rock in Coachella.

“Why are you wearing a dress?” Taiga asks Shintaro as he eyes his clothes with envy. It looks so breezy as it flaps along with the wind while Taiga can feel his sweat running from his back to the crack of his butt.

“It’s not a dress, it’s a caftan,” He says and starts swaying side-to-side.

“And why are those two wearing couple shirts?” Taiga motions to Jesse and Kouchi who are both wearing white polo shirts with camellia prints and cargo shorts.

“Are you jealous?” Shin knowingly asks and they both glance at Hokuto who looks like the aimless prince of some Middle Eastern monarch who went to Phuket to waste time and money. He looks like royalty in his white tunic, acid-wash jeans, maroon turban, and aviator sunglasses, the only thing missing in his look is a million-dollar yacht.

“No, why would I be jealous?” Taiga asks back and notices that a pretty lady in an empire cut dress keeps on looking at him. Well, he doesn’t want to assume that she’s looking at him, it could be Shintaro, but when she smiled, Taiga did the polite thing to do and smiles back, he hopes that the smile he gave reads, “I’m not interested but I don’t want to be a bitch either.”

“Okay, are you all enjoying your meal?” the host asks, Taiga recognizes him as one of Juri’s variety show friends.

“Yes,”

“Lovely, the meal you had is a fusion of Japanese and Thai cuisine, and did you like it?”

Some answers, “yes”, while others say “quite spicy”.

“Speaking of spicy, we will be having a very spicy game,”

“Go, Hokuto!” Shintaro exclaims and everyone looks over their table.

“Shut up!” Hokuto says.

“Actually, it’s an old game that we gave a twist, so for now, I need all single guys, as long as you don’t have a wedding ring on your finger, you’re considered single,” the host announces and Taiga, Shintaro, Kouchi, Jesse, and Hokuto were literally fetch by Juri’s mother to bring them in front and by the time the host’s countdown ended, there were 15 single, unimpressed men, involuntarily vying for a piece of a garter. Juri is suspiciously missing, while his brother, the groom, turns his back at them and throws the white silk garter and as expected, no one dared to catch it. They may have never met, but they have a uniformed opinion that this game is shit.

“I forgot to add, the rule of this game, the one who catches the garter will be eliminated from this game,” the host says.

In that split second, these single men who were once comrades have turned to enemies, Taiga is scared, the silly game has turned to a rugby match as the guys tackled, elbowed, kicked just to catch a fucking garter, and Taiga doesn’t want to sacrifice his Dior suit for this madness. Jesse used his height as an advantage as he jumped higher than how far the garter was thrown, Shintaro used his hard body to fight for it, and Kouchi just got lucky when the garter bounces from one dude’s hand to his. In the end, two people remain, Taiga and Hokuto, and Taiga is tempted to give Hokuto a signal to just let him win this one, he slowly looks at Hokuto, who just tip his head, and Taiga has no idea what that tip of his head meant, is it a challenge? Is it an ‘I will let you win this one’? Taiga takes a deep breath as Juri’s brother throws the garter, as expected, Hokuto is three steps ahead of him because he’s a lousy runner, so he tries reaching for that loose end of his turban, which he managed to reach and unrolled it. Hokuto, being a fashion icon that he is, actually stops to stop his turban from falling and Taiga manages to catch the garter.

“Yes!” Taiga silently exclaims. Sorry, Hokuto, I need to win this one.

“Oh, congratulations, young man, you are the winner!”

“What?”

“I forgot to add, the 2nd to the last person who catches the garter is the winner!” the host says.

Hokuto gives him a tap on his back and he exits the stage to go to the rest of the guys. Everyone claps their hand as the host announces for all single ladies to come in front and the entire “catch the bouquet” game went blurry for Taiga because he’s probably experiencing an out of body experience, so he was surprised to see that the lady in empire cut sundress is the one who caught the bouquet.

“Oh, we have a very good-looking couple in here,” the hosts exclaims and the audience started clinking their glasses with silverware, and Taiga wants to die right here, right now.

“A kiss in the cheek will do,” the host says and the lady has the nerve to lean closer. Taiga purses his lips, he must relax, he has kissed a guy and girl in his life, another girl should not matter. He moves quickly, but the lady is quicker because instead of a cheek, he ends up kissing her lips.

A kiss is not just a kiss, it awakens something, or someone, just take a look at Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, they got awaken by a kiss, and the only thing that got awaken in Taiga is the thought that he should have stayed in the villa. He opens the cubicle door and sees Hokuto on the other side, he immediately looks at the toilet, thankful that it’s empty from any shits, but Hokuto doesn’t want to wait for him to go out, he pushes Taiga back inside, and before he can ask any questions, Hokuto crashes his lips to his. Taiga keeps his eyes open, as if he wants to make sure that Hokuto is really kissing him, Hokuto pulls Taiga’s closer by placing his hand on his nape, not allowing any room for breathing, a multitude of sensations started awakening in Taiga, and before the kiss can get any deeper, Hokuto breaks the kiss, “I hope this is enough payback for making you win that game and got that unwanted kiss,” he says with a smile and leaves the cubicle, while also leaving Taiga with swollen lips and a growing erection.

_I’m a try-sexual, I’ll try anything at once…_

The wedding ended with almost everyone having to drag their fabulous ass back to their hotels or villas, the five former co-stars were not an exception, Juri should have been with them but he made some lame excuse that his mother is looking for him, but Taiga and Kouchi saw a Thai woman waiting for him in the shadows. Taiga didn’t drink for safety reasons, not his but Hokuto’s, Kouchi didn’t drink because he doesn’t want to have a hangover for tomorrow’s bike trip, and the three just drank merrily. Jesse is the dead-drunk type, he really just dropped dead and they have to check if he still has pulse and breathing, “why this villa has stairs?” Taiga asks as he and Kouchi struggle to drag Jesse upstairs, his long legs dangling along. Shintaro is the bragger-drunk type, he went from table to table to tell everyone that the tab is on him even though all their drinks were free from the reception. “I will build a villa like this in Tokyo!” he keeps on saying as he sways from one end to another as he goes upstairs. Then there’s Hokuto, the chatty-and-in-denial-drunk type. He’s obviously drunk but he keeps on saying that he’s not drunk, he didn’t want anyone else’s help back to the villa but he almost ended up in the sea, he also became very chatty and even got into a heated debate with one of the guests on the best Yume-chan ASMR.

“If they don’t wake up on time tomorrow, let’s just leave them,” Kouchi says.

“Agree,” Taiga answers as Jesse’s lies between them, his arms splayed and pinning them down. 

“Is this a sleepover?” Shintaro asks, he jumps on the bed and places his heavy legs across Kouchi. “Kouch, I’ll buy you a new bike!”

“Fuck off, just get off your legs and Jesse’s arm from me!” Kouchi screams, his patience wearing thin from idiots around him.

Hokuto sees the scene and runs toward Taiga, “Yume-chan!” He tells Taiga and starts squishing his cheeks.

“Fuck off, Hokuto,”

“Not until you say, ‘nice to meet you, I’m Yume-chan’,” he says using that creepy vocaloid feminine voice that he says, he finds relaxing.

“Again, fuck off, Hokuto,”

“Wrong, it’s ‘nice to meet you, I’m Yume-chan, let’s get into deep sleep today’,” he says, his nose almost touching Taiga’s.

“Nice-to-meet-you-fuck-off-or-you’ll-be-sleeping-forever,” Taiga says in his best R2D2 voice.

Taiga and Kouchi didn’t know how they managed to escape what they labeled as “the three idiots” room, but they managed to do it and Taiga drops a lavender bath bomb in the bathtub because he badly needs to get soak, he’s been soaking in his own sweat because of his suit, and there’s nothing better than soaking in a tub. If Hokuto listens to this Yume-chan to fall asleep, although Taiga thinks it’s more like jerking-off before falling asleep, Taiga considers himself more of intellect as he listens to Harry Potter’s audiobook, in English, and narrated by Stephen Fry. The British genius has a voice that will make you want to listen, it’s soothing and relaxing, but since his English ability is not at par with Jesse’s, he always end-up falling asleep instead. He presses play and starts listening to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Chapter 1 as he inhales the spring in lavender. Taiga can feel his entire being swayed toward the dreamland when he felt another pair of limbs underwater, he opens his eyes and sees Hokuto at the other end of the bathtub. He blinks his eyes, even gives himself a slap to make sure he’s not dreaming.

“H-Hokuto?”

Hokuto didn’t answer instead he grabs Taiga by his ankles and glides him toward him until their knees are touching.

“S-shouldn’t you be sleeping right now?”

Instead of answering, Hokuto lightly parts Taiga’s legs, lifts him, and now Taiga’s straddling him, his butt on Hokuto’s shapely thighs, and he can feel Hokuto’s growing erection with his own growing erection. Hokuto looks up at him, his eyes lit with desire while his lips beg for a kiss, Taiga goes down on him, sucking, teasing, biting, when he got tired of playing, he slides his tongue and feels himself reaching orgasm as Hokuto tastes like rum and cherry on a hot summer night; strong, sweet, and makes you want to pop. While Taiga’s tongue is busy, he also keeps his hands busy as he reaches for Hokuto’s penis underneath the purplish foam, it’s hard against his palm, and it grows harder with each of Taiga’s stroke. He tightens his grip around his cock and drowns Hokuto’s groans by deepening their kiss. He feels Hokuto’s hand around his waist, guiding him to his erection, begging to be inside him, and Taiga didn’t wait for too long, he slowly lowers down into Hokuto’s erection, moaning as his length fills him, he starts moving slow, not wanting to splash soapy water everywhere, as if that ever stopped him before, as Hokuto grazes his teeth over his nipples before proceeding to give them a good suck, making Taiga squirm with the sudden gust of thrill all over his body. Hokuto leans back until his head touches the edge of the tub and starts thrusting his hips, slow but deep, making Taiga gasps in pleasure, while his hands secure Taiga’s waist as if to lock him in place, and when the tension starts building up, he drove inside faster, water splashing everywhere, Taiga’s head thrown back, his moans getting louder, as Hokuto continues to drill him, reaching new grounds, and soon Taiga plops on Hokuto’s chest, his insides tighten as Hokuto spills his seeds, both of them shudder as Taiga reaches for a kiss.

“Taiga! Taiga!” Like a newborn child who draws his first breath, Taiga breathes deeper and he starts coughing, he feels awful having drunk a bit of the lavender water. He sees Kouchi’s pale and worried face.

“Thank God, I thought you’re fucking dead,” Kouchi says, his voice shaking.

“W-What happened?”

“I was gonna ask you for some toothpaste since I don’t want to enter the three idiots room, and then I saw your head submerge underwater, did you fall asleep?”

Taiga is still in a daze but he can now clearly hear Stephen Fry’s perfect diction, he immediately looks at the other end of the tub, no Hokuto, the tub still full, and no splashes everywhere to remind him of that water-splashing sex. Was that all a dream?

“Kouchi, thanks for saving me,”

“No big deal, are you okay?”

“I-ll be fine, I’ll just take a quick shower and sleep,”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m sure, thanks,”

Kouchi says his goodbye, but he tells Taiga that he’ll be back in 10 minutes to check again, Taiga feels tired and leans his back, the water has gotten tepid, he splashes water on his face and feels some milky fluid on his hand. Oh, great! So much for being the smarter one, he’s listening to a Harry Potter audiobook yet he was dreaming of fucking Hokuto, and all the while, he was just jerking-off and almost died doing it.

“I really should get laid,” he stands-up and drowns his bodily desires with a cold shower.

_I revealed too much, too soon. I was emotionally slutty…_

Kouchi is that one friend who keeps his promises, he did check on Taiga after 10 minutes just as he was getting out of the shower, and when he said that those who didn’t wake-up in time will be left behind, well, Taiga finds himself alone in their 4-bedroom villa.

“Those jerks,” he says and sneezes, okay, so maybe it’s a good thing that he didn’t go with them because he must be having a cold and sports isn’t really his strong suit anyway, but he’s really annoyed, like there are five of them, and no one, not even a single soul, dares to wakes him up instead of leaving him alone. He goes to the fridge and finds it empty except for some water, he recalls that Shintaro has some cup ramen so that’ll do for his breakfast and lunch, he goes to Shintaro’s room, and immediately locates the noodles, he goes back to the kitchen and screams.

“H-Hokuto?”

“Kyomoto,”

“What are you doing here?” they both ask.

“Well, I thought I was left alone,” Taiga said.

“Me too, I thought everyone just left me,” Hokuto says and points at the cup ramen he’s holding, “I bought enough food for two, let’s eat this,” he adds and starts emptying the plastic of red-orange soup to bowls.

“I bought Thai chicken curry in coconut milk, they told me it’s spicy, so I hope that’s fine for you,”

“Oh, I’m fine, I can take the heat,” Taiga says and sniffs.

“Do you have a cold?” Hokuto asks as he lay the bowl of curry and Taiga can smell the pungent chili in the air that makes him sneeze more.

“Sorry about that, I stayed in the bathtub too long last night-” he recalls that lucid dream he had last night featuring Hokuto and decided that he doesn’t want to prolong the story.

“-and that’s it. Ooh, this is really spicy,” Taiga says after he sips the soup, he thinks that it will make his cold worse so he just chose the chicken bits to eat with rice.

“It is, it’s also good for a hangover, I got an awful headache when I woke up and my top was also removed,” he looks accusingly at Taiga.

“Why are you looking at me? I swear to you, when Kouchi and I left you three in the room, all of you are fully-clothed, although Shintaro’s caftan is already above his waist.”

Hokuto smiles, “I think last night was the most I drank, the last time I got that drunk was-”

“When you turned 20!” Taiga finishes, “I remember that, Kouchi and I drag you and Juri to a really posh bar because we wanted to show-off that this is where guys in their 20s drinks, we ordered only the hard drinks that we could think of, and the bar manager has to call our own managers to fetch us,” Taiga laughs as he recalls that story.

“Not only that, I remember we got into the bar like around 10 pm and we were already dead drunk by 10:20,”

“Right! None of us could get up, I think we were all carried out,”

“That’s why when Shintaro turned 20, no one was looking forward to getting drunk and we just went-” Hokuto stops, suddenly remembering who wasn’t present when Shintaro turned 20.

“Ah, you just went to a revolving sushi place,” Taiga finishes the story for him.

“Y-yes.”

When Shintaro turned 20, their TV show had just ended its 6 years run, and Taiga didn’t have the heart to face anyone even for an important birthday celebration. When Taiga chose to leave the show, the producers decided that they couldn’t prolong the story without him, everyone is essential in the story of 6 guys whom people followed from their teens to their early adulthood, so they chose to just end the series altogether.

The breakfast atmosphere suddenly got heavy that even the spiciness of the curry didn’t bother Taiga.

“I think I should apologize again to you guys and explain-”

“Kyomoto, have you heard this saying?”

Why is Hokuto changing the topic? “What saying?”

“Never explain yourself to anyone because the person who dislikes you would never believe it and the person who likes you don’t need it,”

“Even you?” Taiga asks and he immediately regrets it, he didn’t know where he got that courage. Hokuto didn’t answer immediately as well, it’s like he’s constructing what he wants to say in the nicest way possible.

“I admit I wanted an explanation, I hated you for a long time, but then I realized, we were in the wrong age for that kind of love, yet it was all we could think about, and yet we’re also too young to face the consequences, that’s why I understand, I understand why you chose to run away,”

Tears start falling from Taiga’s eyes, he hates Hokuto for being this mature, this understanding, this caring, this loving, and all these that Taiga knew he didn’t deserve. He runs to Hokuto and hugs him behind, burying his face on the side of his neck, “I’m really sorry,” Taiga says in between tears and sniffles as Hokuto pats Taiga’s head.

Taiga and Hokuto chose to spend the day indoors, it’s too hot outside anyway, and Taiga can only pray that those four are suffering from the heat outside. They were like an old married couple who have nothing to do while their kids are away, Taiga is watching a local drama where the female lead suffered a lifetime worth of misfortune in just one episode, while Hokuto pretends to read an ebook, but Taiga will catch him glancing over the TV. Taiga isn’t exactly sure when or how it started, but Hokuto reaches for him and began kissing him, which Taiga reacted by biting Hokuto’s lower lip.

“Ouch-”

“Sorry, I have to make sure I wasn’t dreaming,” Taiga says and to make up with the bite, he starts kissing and sucking the part that he had bitten, making it more swollen, “I think we should ice this part,”

“Don’t bother,” Hokuto kisses him with more pressure this time, slowly lowering him on the sofa while his hands move at the hem of Taiga’s shirt, he removes them with urgency before he proceeds in removing his tank top. Taiga allows his hands to roam Hokuto’s body, feeling each taut muscles, tracing them with his long fingers, touching him in places to make him groan as their tongues do the mating. As much as he loves Hokuto’s tongue in his mouth, he wants to dip his tongue in every part of Hokuto’s skin, he wants him in the neediest way possible, he shifts their position, kisses him senseless before he could protest, and starts tracing kisses along with his oh-so-perfect nose, down to his hard jaw, a quick suck on his delicious adam’s apple, before he works his way to his brown nipples, his chest glisten with a light sweat, and Taiga sucks the saltiness from it as he listens to Hokuto’s gasps. Then, he goes farther down, tracing kisses along with the chocolate squares on his abs, to his navel, grazing his teeth along his hip bone, before pulling down his shorts and his underwear, and be greeted with Hokuto’s cock, it already feels hard on Taiga’s palm and it gives him a sense of satisfaction to feel it grow harder and longer inside his mouth as his tongue glides along its shaft. Taiga can feel his own erection trying to break free, he removes his pants and undies with his free hand and plays with his own hard cock while his mouth is on Hokuto’s. He can already taste Hokuto’s pre-cum and he’s suddenly unsure if he should let Hokuto cum inside his mouth or he can mount him and let them climax together.

“T-Taiga, I want to cum inside you,” Hokuto says, quite breathless in an effort to stop himself from climaxing. Taiga reaches for the fishbowl beside the TV, welcome to Thailand where safe sex is a priority that there’s actually a fish bowl of condoms and lubes beside a living room TV, he takes a condom and lube, Hokuto gives his behind a slap before asking him lie down, condom now on his dick, he spread the lube on his middle finger like a toothpaste, and inserts it in Taiga’s butthole, he half-scream and gasps, it’s been so long that he felt like he will climax just from Hokuto’s finger, he’s too deep in pleasure of his touch that when he drove into him, Taiga let out a scream as this feels foreign for him, it feels like the first time as he adjusts to his length and when he starts thrusting, the familiarity comes rushing back and this is the very thing he has been craving for so long, the weight of Hokuto on top him, listening to his pant and groans, getting pounded hard and strong, feeling his cock getting harder with each thrust, making him whine with pleasure, and as he leans down for a kiss, Taiga wraps his arms around him and feels his body spasms from his climax. Hokuto breaks the kiss and gently pulls his dick from Taiga before his hand close around Taiga’s still throbbing cock, he licks his pre-cum before putting his entire shaft in, Hokuto’s tongue wet and hot, making him delirious with pleasure, and Taiga can only grip the side of the sofa as he climax.

_It’s hard to find people who will love you no matter what. I was lucky enough to find five of them…_

Taiga and Hokuto spend the rest of their day getting high in their own ecstasy, being an expert in galocher, their limbs tangled, shifting positions, and the only thing that made them stop is a message from Shintaro asking what food they want since they’ll be buying a takeaway before they go home.

Taiga is back to watching that Thai drama when Kouchi comes in and Taiga immediately throws the pillow at him.

“How dare you leave me here?”

“Rules are rules, you didn’t wake up on time, and believe me, you wouldn’t enjoy that trip,” Kouchi says and plops beside Taiga, he smells of sun, sweat, and dirt.

“You smell bad, why don’t you take a shower?”

Kouchi leans closer to Taiga, “did you just got out of the shower? You’re hair still damp.”

“So what if I just took a shower?” Hokuto comes down, his hair obviously still wet.

“Oh, Hokuto, you just got off the shower?” Kouchi asks but his eyes on Taiga.

“Yes, I just showered. Jesse, I’ll help you with that,”

Jesse comes in followed by Shintaro and Juri, each of them carrying brown paper bags for their dinner.

“Hokuto, what happened to your lips?” Jesse asks, motioning to Hokuto’s mildly swollen lower lip.

“Cockroach,” he answers immediately and proceeds to empty the containers into bowls.

“Eh, there’s cockroach here? Kouchi, quick, get a cockroach spray or something!”

“Relax, Jess, I don’t think that cockroach will ever bite you,” he looks back at Taiga, which earns him a kick in the shin.

“Ouch, I’ll take a quick shower first,” Kouchi says and limps on his way up.

“Kyomo!” Juri plops down in the space vacated by Kouchi and hugs Taiga, “I’m so tired, that bike trip is nothing but full of ugly guys, I wish I stayed home, ah!” Juri walks toward the condom fishbowl, “I swear a lot has been missing from this bowl compared to yesterday.”

“Maybe Kouchi was using it to masturbate,” Jesse says.

“Why would he need a condom to masturbate?” Shintaro asks.

“Don’t you need a condom to masturbate?” Jesse asks back.

Shintaro looks over at Hokuto for help, but he just shook his head, not wanting to get involved since he knows where the missing condoms are.

Taiga manages to maintain his composure and asks Juri, “The better question is, why you know that there are condoms missing?”

“I took some yes-”

“Yah, Tanaka, why would you be taking our condoms? Don’t you have enough back at your villa?” Jesse asks.

“Well, first, I have brothers, I even have a newly-married brother, and second, where would you guys be using these anyway?”

“Woah, what are you trying to say? That our sex life is as dry as this spring roll that I’m eating?” Jesse says and dips the spring roll in the sweet and spicy sauce.

“What’s with this sex life and spring rolls?” Kouchi asks when he got down, his hair still dripping.

“Okay, enough of that, let’s have dinner,” Hokuto says and everyone goes to the dining table. Taiga seats in between Hokuto and Shin while Jesse, Kouchi, and Juri seats on their opposite.

“Itadakimasu!” they say before digging in.

After dinner, they head to Lard Yai Market, a weekend night market specializing in local foods, trendy t-shirts, cheap jeans, local handicrafts, and souvenirs. As expected, the night market is bustling with tourists and locals alike, the six grown men found themselves holding hands as they navigate the Thalang Road to buy souvenirs, the Sino-Portuguese houses that lined the street gives the Phuket old town a European feel. Juri and his family will be flying straight to Tokyo the next day while the five of them will be returning to Bangkok where they have another 24 hours to waste before their trip back to Tokyo. Unfortunately, the guys have to split-up since they have different interest, Shintaro and Taiga wants to buy snacks to bring home, Juri wants classic souvenirs that has “Phuket” written all over, Hokuto and Jesse want clothes, and Kouchi really wants beer since he didn’t get to drink the other night. They agreed to meet at a huge graffiti wall with drawings that resembles that of a turtle and an eagle after one hour.

20 minutes later, Taiga and Shintaro find themselves too stuffed because they were eating than shopping. “I guess I’ll just buy dried fruits and cans of Cha Tra Mue to bring home,” Taiga says since he’s too tired to walk.

Shintaro nods, “I think we can buy that stuff at that Big C Supercenter near our hotel, oh, here we are!” They went inside a shop called Torry’s Ice Cream, they have to walk quite a bit from the weekend market to satisfy their sweet-tooth, they order their bestsellers, Bi-Co-Moi for Taiga and O-aew Sorbet and Jelly for Shintaro.

“So, what happened between you and Hokuto?” Shintaro asks that almost made Taiga choked some of the black glutinous rice from his dessert.

“Well, where do I start?”

  
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking you what you guys did while we’re gone, I just want to know, are you guys back together or what?”

“Well, we haven’t sorted that part yet, honestly, we haven’t really talked about us, you must be thinking that I’m such a slut who jumps on the bed the first chance I got,”

Shintaro finishes his dessert, “Kyomo, you’re older than me, you can sleep with whoever you want, but I also know that your feelings for Hokuto extend beyond the bed, and he’s the same with you, so do yourselves a favor and settle your feelings because, as a friend, I don’t want to see you hurting each other again,”

“Shintaro, when did you mature this much?” Taiga asks as he starts to tear-up.

“I guess it’s natural when I’m surrounded by idiots,”

“ _Baka_ ,” Taiga replies and playfully slaps Shintaro.

“Oh, you guys are here!”

“Kouchi!” they both exclaim.

“I thought you’re looking for a beer?” Shintaro asks.

“I was, but how can I drink peacefully when there are couples everywhere, like, everyone is with someone so I decided to just walk around until I saw this place, I think I’ll order a milkshake,”

“So, Taiga, what happened between you and Hokuto?” Kouchi asks while he waits for his milkshake to arrive.

Taiga glances accusingly at Shintaro who just raises his arms and shakes his head.

Kouchi chuckles, “don’t worry, Taiga, we cornered Shintaro back then but he’s loyal to you, he didn’t breathe a word,”

“What do you mean by we?”

“I know, Jesse knows, and Juri, too,”

“Since when?”

“Since then,”

“What? How?” Taiga can’t believe it, he and Hokuto always thought that they were able to hide their 1-year relationship perfectly.

“Well, at first, it was all speculation in our part, but when you left, it became really clear to us what you both had, wow, this is seriously good, better than beer probably,” he says as he sips his mango cheesecake milkshake, “and besides, you two are not really good in hiding, just take a look at how you acted during dinner,”

“How did we act during dinner?”

“Oh, I think I ate a pepper, it’s so spicy,” Kouchi is supposedly acting like Taiga but he ends up like high school girl channeling her inner damsel in distress.

Shintaro pretends to panic while looking for water, “here, have some water,” he says in his best Hokuto’s cool voice.

“Oh, thank you Hokuto, it was really spicy,”

“Show me your tongue, let me check that there’s really nothing, say ‘ah’,”

“Ah…”

“Shut up!” Taiga laughs and cringes, “nothing like that happened, you jerks, but seriously though, how did you react when you learned about us?”

“Well, we were really surprised, like Jesse, he couldn’t speak for a while. Then, we became worried.”

“Worried?”

“Well, you obviously want to hide your relationship so we decided to help you guys hide it, too. Like this one time when you two were just gone, god knows where you guys went, but we decided that Jesse or I will go on hiding as well so if anyone looks for you, we can say that the three of you were together somewhere,”

Taiga is aghast and quite embarrassed to know that when Hokuto and he were frisking each other, their friends were taking cover for them. He absolutely has no idea, no wonder they weren’t asked much on why the two of them are always gone at the same time.

“Oh, but your biggest shipper is Juri,”

“Juri?”

“Yep, I really don’t want this to come from me but I’ll say it anyway, so Juri is dating? Or had dated an air hostess?”

“If it’s Juri, let’s leave his relationship status open,” Shintaro suggests and Taiga agrees.

“Okay, so there’s this air hostess who called him to say that your ex-girlfriend is on her way back to Japan with the husband and babies and all, so Juri, called his papz friend as a tip-off so he and his paparazzi friends will be at the airport when they arrived,”

“And?”

“So they will make a mini commotion, a drama, and then the papz will eventually drag your name, call you for an interview or whatever, in short, you will be force to fly here, in Thailand, so you won’t have to face the wolves, he’s right, right?”

Taiga places his hand on his chest, “wow, I actually feel manipulated.”

“That’s the main point, to manipulate you into coming here so you can patch things up with Hokuto,” Kouchi says before finishing his milkshake, “oh, don’t tell Jess I had sweets, he’s like the sweets police and he’s really strict about this,”

Taiga and Shintaro both lean closer to Kouchi, “so what’s between you and Jesse?”

Kouchi scrunches his eyebrows, “the only thing between Jesse and me is mutual dislike,”

“Yeah, right,” they both say.

“I’m old, I want nothing but peace and quiet and that’s not in Jesse’s vocabulary,”

“Oh, so if Jesse miraculously becomes a quiet type, are you okay with it?” Shintaro asks.

“Hmmm, probably not, I actually prefer him being all hyper and laughing, it suits him more,”

Shintaro and Taiga look at each other, “true love?”

“Shut up! We’re so platonic like we put the ‘p’ in platonic, okay?” Kouchi continues to whine.

_There comes a point when romance gives way to reality…_

All six of them decides to sleep in the living room, they took the mattresses downstairs, and hold a mini-camping since they’ll be too busy to meet again as six once they got back to Japan.

“Okay, okay, let’s play a game, truth or dare,” Juri announces and it’s met with a lukewarm reception.

“Even high school students no longer play that game,” Kouchi protests, “like, what are you gonna ask, who’s your crush or something?”

“Okay, you decide a game,” Juri says in gritted teeth.

“Is it a truth or a lie?” Kouchi proudly says, which earns him a slap from Juri.

“You just changed dare to lie, how is that different from mine?”

“This is the mature version and if you guess wrongly, you have to pay, 10,000 Yen each?”

“Too small,” Shintaro interferes, he’s suddenly pumped up after hearing money, “we’re not poor, we earned a lot during our TV show so 100,000 Yen per the wrong guess, deal?”

“Deal,” Taiga quickly agrees, his eyes are no longer brown but in Yen.

“Then, I’m fine with it,” Hokuto says then Jesse and Juri followed suit.

“Fine,” Kouchi gives in, he opens his smartphone, and after some clicks, he places his phone in the middle where they can see a customized “spin the wheel” with all of their names. “I’ll spin the wheel,” Kouchi spins it and it stops right at Juri’s name.

“Just a warning,” Jesse says, “I really don’t want to listen to your sex escapades,”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make it PG-12,” Juri says before letting out a deep breath, “is it a truth or a lie? After my brother’s wedding, I met one of the most beautiful women that I ever laid my eyes on,”

“Yeah, Kouch and I saw her waiting for you in the shadows,” Taiga says.

“Eh, why don’t we know this?” Shintaro asks.

“You three were drunk,” Kouchi says, “continue, Juri,”

“As I was saying, I met one of the most beautiful women that I ever laid my eyes on,”

“How beautiful is beautiful?” Hokuto asks, which earned him an irate look from Taiga.

“Hmmm, a cross between Eva Mendez and Penelope Cruz,”

“Wooh,” even Taiga is impressed.

Juri spreads his hand, “her boobs is definitely that of Eva Mendez,” the guys nodded in acknowledgment and appreciation.

“Anyway, since this is PG-12, there will be a time-skip, a huge time-skip. So, is it a truth or lie that the beautiful woman that I mentioned is not a woman?”

“Eh?” they all say, confused.

“Remember the girls at Simon Cabaret?”

The five of them are left with their eyes wide and mouth hanging in the open.

“Was that too shocking for you, kids?”

Shintaro is the first to recover, “truth, the woman is not really a woman, I mean, the women in the cabaret, if they were not advertised as ladyboys, I probably would have been fooled,”

“I agree with Shintaro,” Jesse says, “it was night and you had a few drinks as well so your judgment must have been clouded, so, true,”

“I’ll go with true, too,” Kouchi answers.

“True with me as well,” Hokuto says.

“Lie for me,” Taiga says as he adjusts his spectacles.

“Woah, have you been wearing those glasses all along?” Hokuto asks.

“I’m Kyomo Kyomo Holmes, this is part of the disguise,” Taiga says, “the reason why I think that Juri is lying is that as our resident since this is PG-12 I’ll spell it, f-u-c-k-b-,”

“No need to spell it, Kyomo Kyomo Holmes,” 

“Okay, as our resident you-know-what, I trust that he can tell, he really can tell, like, he just knew who’s a woman or not, so it’s a lie for me,”

They all wait for Juri’s response and he starts clapping his hands, “ _Sugei_ , Kyomo, thank you for trusting my instincts while all these guys think that I’ll jump into anyone as long they are wearing a skirt,”

“Eh, so the woman is a woman?” Kouchi is obviously disappointed.

“Of course, thank you for making me 400,000 Yen richer,”

Taiga adjusts his glasses, “as expected my deduction is correct, better treat me to grade A Japanese beef back at Tokyo, Juri,”

“Of course, I’ll treat you one of the best, okay who’s next?”

Kouchi begrudgingly spins the wheel again and it stops at Shintaro.

“Do you have secrets to tell?” Jesse asks.

“Well, it’s not really a secret, so, is it a truth or a lie that I still kept in touch to one of our co-stars back in the first season?”

“Wow, so we went from PG-12 to G,” Juri says, obviously bored.

Taiga raises his hand, “does this former co-star also happened to be a girl and your classmate back in high school?”

“Eh, who?” Juri and Hokuto ask since the four of them went to the same high school except that Shintaro is their junior.

“I-I refuse to answer that question,”

“It’s true for me,” Taiga immediately say and because he got the first one correct, everyone just followed suit.

Shintaro smiles, “it’s a lie, we no longer keep in touch,”

“Eh?”

“In fact, when I asked that question, I wasn’t even referring to anyone but you just assume because Taiga brought up someone, haha, 500,000 richer, thank you!”

“So, you mean, you weren’t referring to any person at all? Like, you’re just trolling us?” Taiga asks.

“Yes and no, yes, I’m just trolling, but also no, I’m referring to anyone who has been our co-star during the first season, whom I no longer keep in touch with,” Shintaro answers with a smile.

“This is worse than the casino, I just lost 200,000 Yen for nothing,” Kouchi complains, “Can we change something for the third round?”

“What?”

“Instead of paying up for getting it wrong, if we guess it right, we get paid, fair enough?”

“Sure,” they all agree.

“Okay, next one,” Kouchi spins the wheel and off to Hokuto.

Hokuto sigh, he takes one long look at Taiga before reaching for his hand, interlacing his finger with his, before saying, “is it truth or a lie that Kyomoto and I are in a relationship?”

Taiga held his breath, his heart is bursting with love, but how can he tell Hokuto that he now has to pay 400,000 Yen? The four acted shock, or maybe they are really shocked, not because they didn’t know, but because Hokuto chose that time to confess.

“Hokuto, are you sure that’s your question?” Juri asks, “You can change your question, just this one time, you can change,”

The three nods their head, even Taiga.

“No, the same question, is it truth or a lie that Kyomoto and I are in a relationship?”

They all sigh before saying, “truth.”

“Eh? What is this atmosphere?” He looks at Taiga, “why?”

“S-surprise, they all know the way, way, way back,” Taiga says.

Kouchi claps his hand before fist-bumping with Jesse, “yes, so now, I just need to let out 100k,”

“I’m 600k richer, thank you Hokkun,” Shintaro says with pouty lips while making a heart shape symbol with his hand.

“And I’m 600k poorer,” Hokuto says while looking like he’s having an out of body experience.

Taiga feels that someone lifted his blanket, and he didn’t have to check as Hokuto’s familiar embrace and warmth fills him. Taiga turns around and finds himself nose-to-nose with him, his eyes tired but shining as he gives Taiga a light kiss on his lips.

“You should be sleeping,” Taiga whispers, not wanting to wake-up the others.

“You’re also still awake,” Hokuto whispers back, “can’t sleep?”

“Just thinking,”

“What are you thinking about?”

“I’m thinking how nice it is to just stay here, stay like this, not caring about anything or anyone, to just live like this,”

“That is achievable,” Hokuto says after a while.

“Really? How?”

“Well, first, you have to face your fears, and when you have properly faced them, you can live as freely as you want,”

“Sounds complicated,”

“It’s not complicated, I’m here, I’ll help you,”

Taiga smiles and uses Hokuto’s chest as a pillow, he listens to his heartbeat as he watches the rise and fall of his chest. Hokuto might be willing to face the wolves with him, but Taiga knew, he won’t let that happen, he lost Hokuto once, he won’t let it happen again, he’ll protect him at all cost, but the biggest question is, how? He looks at Hokuto who has now fallen asleep, he gently brushes the strands of hair covering his eyes, and he can stare for eternity at the perfect specimen in front of him. He senses that someone is looking at him, and he can feel his face gets red with embarrassment when he sees Kouchi with a mixture of amusement and disgust look on his face.

“Stop flirting and just go to sleep,” Kouchi says.

Taiga gives him a finger, “you’re just jealous, just stare at Jesse all you want,” he says and buries himself under the blanket.

_The hard thing about fighting in relationships is that there’s no referee. There’s no one to tell you which comments are below the belt. As a result, someone usually gets hurt…_

Taiga prayed hard before answering a video call from his father, his half-look-alike looks none to please in seeing his only son and Taiga can only brace himself.

“Pa,”

“You’re in Thailand? I saw Tanaka Juri’s mom posts,”

Too late to deny, Taiga guess. “Yes,”

“And Matsumura Hokuto is also there?”

“Yes, Juri also invited him here,” and he’s in the shower at the moment and Taiga can only pray that Hokuto will be in there for as long as this call.

“Is there something you’re not telling me, Taiga?”

“No, pa, there’s nothing,”

“You’re not-”

“No, pa, Hokuto and I are not back together, there’s nothing between us,” Taiga keeps his fingers crossed while saying all of this.

“There’d better be nothing, Taiga, I’ll see you tomorrow,”

“Yes, pa, see you,” Taiga says and turns off the video call, he finds himself shaking from fear, the exact feeling he felt when his father confronted him about his relationship with Hokuto back then. He thought he was over that, that he’s now braver, but he guesses not, he’s still a kid. He hears the bathroom door open and Hokuto comes out, they agreed to share a room when they landed in Bangkok since there’s no need to hide their relationship from their friends, and Taiga wishes he can do the same with his family.

“Get ready, we-”

“I heard everything,” Hokuto says and Taiga can feel himself deflating.

“What’s that all about, Taiga?”

“Well, m-my dad didn’t want us, didn’t want me to be with you,”

“Is that also the reason why you just left me two years ago?”

Taiga nods as tears fall from his eyes, “he found out about us and he can’t accept it, he says that I’m probably just confused because I’m too close with you guys and so. Eventually, I began to think that maybe, just maybe, I’m really just confused, so I broke up with you,”

“What about now? Are you still confused that’s why you chose to deny me to your father? Are you going to leave me just as you did before?”

Taiga shook his head, “no, Hokuto, believe me, I’m no longer confused about my feelings for you, I realized that the moment I left you. When something good or bad happens, you’re the first person I wanted to tell about it, but I was such a coward, no, I’m still a fucking coward, I’m too scared to face you or face the wrath of my father, and then I met her, I treated her like a rebound even though she really loved me, that’s why I can’t hate her for cheating on me because I felt like, I was the first one who cheated on her,” he runs to Hokuto and hugs him, “I promise, I promise to sort this out to my father, please believe me,”

Hokuto looks at him, hurt evident in his eyes, “You were confused? You were scared? You will sort this out? Do you think I wasn’t confused? Do you think I wasn’t scared? I also felt that and more but I still chose you, yet you chose to just leave me and lie. Sort this out? You had two years, Taiga, how much more do I need to wait?” He takes his clothes on the bed, “I’ll stay at Shintaro’s, I’ll get the rest of my stuff later,” Hokuto leaves and all Taiga can do is to kneel and cry.

Taiga feels too awful to marvel at the sight of three giant elephants on top of a pink temple, Shintaro and Kouchi take turns in creating IG stories to tik tok to vlogging that Taiga found himself sitting inside the temple’s grand staircase while he looks up at the kaleidoscope ceiling. Hokuto and Jesse chose to go somewhere else, shopping probably, or maybe Hokuto decided to drag Jesse away just to avoid him. The entire train ride from their hotel to the end of BTS line has been eerily awkward, even the other passengers probably felt the ticking time-bomb that the long ride has been spent in hush voices and click sounds.

“…and over there is my friend, Taiga, who is obviously missing someone,” Kouchi says while holding a selfie stick, “say hello, Taiga,”

“Fuck you,” Taiga scoffs.

“Shhh, we’re in a temple, watch your words,”

“Yeah, right, we’re in a temple and you guys are vlogging,”

“Sorry about that guys, it's that time of the month for him so he’s sulking, gotta say goodbye, for now, all the way from Erawan museum here in Thailand, it’s me, your _You-go_ -guy, Kouchi!” He ends it with his signature smile and peace sign before turning-off his phone.

“I sincerely hope you won’t upload that or I’ll hate you forever,”

“I don’t believe in forever so you won’t be able to hate me forever, and since there’s no such thing as forever, just patch things up with Hokuto because life is too short for you guys to get mad,” Kouchi says and sits beside him.

“He’s the one who walked out, not me,”

“And the reason he walked out because?”

Taiga let out a sigh, “it’s really not that easy for me, Kouchi, you know my dad, it’s really not easy,”

“As they say, there’s no easy way for things worth getting, and is Hokuto worth it?”

“With my life,” Taiga says.

“There goes your answer, I’m going upstairs, do you want to go with me?”

“It’s okay, I’ll wait for Shintaro to come in and we’ll follow you upstairs,” Taiga says before opening his phone.

_It wasn’t logic, it was love..._

Taiga knows he’s fucked up the moment he ended up in the same stall where he bought the watermelon shake that he’s holding right now, its rind heavy with the watermelon shake scooped like ice cream. He knows that there are a lot of things in his mind right now, mostly about Hokuto, like how he avoided Taiga’s gaze when they met again at the BTS station to go to the Ratchada night market, or like how he swiftly inserted those wireless earphones when Taiga tried to speak to him, or how he did a Melania move when Taiga tried holding his hand, now he knows how Trump felt and it was definitely not funny. He reaches for his back pocket and finds it empty of his smartphone, he recalls that he gave it Shintaro to charge on his powerbank. Taiga takes a deep breath as the orderly-chaos around him starts moving in an endless loop of fast forward’s while he remains stuck to where he is now, he can feel his heart drumming, his temples pounding, and he knows that it’s only a matter of time before this fear will turn to a full-out panic attack. He wills himself to relax, trying to retrace his steps back to the mini seafood and beer place where he left the guys to buy a fucking milkshake. But so much for retracing his steps, he has no idea how he even got to that milkshake stand in the first place, he moves as if he’s following that rope system you see in immigration lines at airports, he walks slowly while he listens to the multitude of languages around him, most of them seemingly high and having fun until he feels an arm around him.

“Hi ya, mate!” the guy says and drags him to their corner table filled with blondes and one redhead, all of them obviously foreign, and by foreign, Taiga meant white and definitely not of Asian lineage.

“Mah mate and I here are bettin’ if yer an Aussie, or like Carl here whose a Brit, or just like Ryan whose an Irish, so what’s yer nationality?”

Taiga knows that he’s not good in English but what language is this guy speaking? Was that also English? Five pairs of eyes look at him with anticipation, and before he can answer, a familiar arm goes around his shoulders, “he’s Japanese, excuse us,”

“So all of us lost?”

Taiga overhears one of them say as Hokuto drags him away from the crowd, his arm now on Taiga’s waist as they navigate the supposedly one-person lane, but Hokuto doesn’t care as he walks almost sideways just so he can keep his arm on Taiga.

When they were finally out of the market area, Taiga gladly welcomes the cool breeze fanning his face, they are now in an open area filled with mini pubs and he can already see the seafood and beer place where the three guys are seated on the second floor, but Hokuto drags him in a darkened corner of a nearby beer pub and proceeds to kiss him senseless.

“I was so worried and there you are with a bunch of white guys,” Hokuto says before taking a deep breath.

“I couldn’t understand them anyway and besides, they would never measure to you,”

“Don’t, make, me, worry, like, that, again,” Hokuto says in between kissing Taiga’s lips, “I miss you so much, I can’t believe I managed to ignore you that long,”

“It wasn’t even a day yet,”

“Well, it surely felt like years,” Hokuto takes a deep breath, “I’m sorry for being a selfish prick earlier, I shouldn’t have gotten mad that you denied me to your dad, I decided that I’ll help you until you’re brave enough to tell your dad about us, and until he will be able to accept us,”

“Actually, I’ve already told my dad and mom about us, I did it while we were in the museum, and the only thing my father said was we will talk once we get back in Japan,”

“Oh, okay, then I guess I have to prepare myself when we get back in Japan,”

Taiga interlaced his fingers with Hokuto as they start to walk away, “you better have your proposal ready to my parents,”

“And you better say yes,”

“Why does that sound like a threat?”

“It is a threat, Taiga, I won’t let you run away again,”

Taiga stops on his tracks, “I will never run away again, Hokuto, I’ll be as clingy as a cling wrap so you better be prepared,”

“Oi, Taiga, Hokuto, we’re here!”

They look up and see Kouchi frantically waving at them, Jesse raises a Tiger beer for a toast, while Shintaro does another heart sign. Taiga and Hokuto wave back before running toward their friends.

_Eventually, all the pieces fall into place…until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moment, and know that everything happens for a reason…_

**FIN.**

**Author's Note:**

> -All italicized quotes are taken from Sex and the City.  
> -Also borrowed Charlotte's line about wanting to be fucked for Taiga.  
> -The standard Bangkok tuktuk won't be able to fit 5 men in reality, but I need them in just one ride so just use your imagination.  
> \- Thipsamai's Pad Thai is really good especially if mixed with crushed nuts.  
> \- Forgive me for any typos that I might have missed.  
> -I'm back at LJ, fangirlingspazz.livejournal.com  
> Thank you for reading!  
> (PS. I wrote a prequel relating to this, please have a look as well >>>Next)


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